The Unitec/Waitemata Simulation Learning Lab: A partnership to prepare New Zealand's next generation of nurses.

There is a growing concern in New Zealand about the need to better prepare clinicians for the real world of nursing practice. The increased use of human patient simulations is one approach to addressing this concern by offering a well-organized and standardised way to provide content and encourage critical thinking in a safe practice environment. Unitec New Zealand has embraced the use of simulations in their undergraduate nursing curriculum and has partnered with Waitemata District Health Board (WDHB) to develop a state of the art interdisciplinary simulation lab. The simulation lab has been designed using wired and wireless technologies to accommodate various clinical and informatics practice scenarios. Supervision of students uses mounted cameras, and video-conference technology. The Unitec/Waitemata Simulation Learning Lab has the potential to enhance the education of nursing students by offering them a safe place to gain valuable experience with patient car delivery and informatics tools. This paper is designed to summarize the planning process used to develop this partnership, describe the vision of the centre and note the progress to date.

KIWIN(TM): From prototype to product for use.

2005 has seen the birth of the product KIWIN(TM)--an educational technology for nursing students in New Zealand involving web-based technology supported by Pocket PCs in the field. Nursing students use the technology to collect clinically relevant data at the point-of-care and transmit to a secure central server for storage using cradle synchronisation, WiFi or cellular wireless modalities. Later retrieval via the Internet enables collation of details, refinement of work, and construction with print-off of care reports to meet academic requirements. This demonstration will showcase the development to the international community. Critique and review will be welcomed.

The sonata form of musical composition as a framework for thesis writing.

In response to Watson's challenge to view the usual in new ways, this article introduces an innovation in writing Master's research and suggests that other structures may offer new and different frameworks for reporting nursing research. This is exemplified by reference to an example of nursing research which adopted the sonata-form of musical composition as the framework for presentation of the thesis.